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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23448667">Neutralising die Zerstörung</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calleo/pseuds/Calleo'>Calleo</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Curses, Gen, M/M, Magic, Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter), Other, Post-Movie 2: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, The Golden Trio Era (Harry Potter), The Ministry of Magic (Harry Potter) is Terrible, Weapons of Mass Destruction, World War II</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:02:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,588</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23448667</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calleo/pseuds/Calleo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Over the course of the Eastern European Wizarding War, millions fell in the path of what has been described by its few living witnesses as a sickly silence sweeping over entire valleys- something like a rainstorm, something like a wind, and something, indeed, like an Avada Kedavra on a massive scale. After the light faded, total conflagration inevitably followed.</p><p>The largest radius of a Zerstörung’s destruction on record was left at seventy-three miles, in 1944. </p><p>                   - “European Magical History, Volume IV”, Bathilda Bagshot"</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gellert Grindelwald &amp; Original Character(s), Original Male Character/Original Male Character</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. It's Nothing at All.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is pieced together from a series of interactions between my OC, a friend's OC, and another  friend who writes Grindelwald. It takes place in a minor AU spanning 1991-1992 and details an unknown weapon used one of Grindelwald's generals in the 1940s being inadvertently rediscovered and the aftermath of its small scale testing to prove the theory.</p><p>There is nothing graphic violence wise, but there is death, including large scale war related death, hinted at.</p><p>The weapon concept and excerpt from European Magical History, Volume IV were written by the person who plays Grindelwald can can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/wk99kjh</p><p>Pairings are listed only to note which characters are present; there isn't anything terribly shippy here.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"How do you figure something that destructive was <em>ONLY TWO SPELLS?</em>" </p><p> </p><p>Of course. Of <em>course</em> someone would have left a hastily written memo over one small part of a conversation they'd overheard.</p><p>Context, in <em>this</em> case, had an impossibly small chance of not making things worse, however, Calleo was well aware that ignoring an internal memo from someone at the Ministry (<em>especially</em> when it turned up outside of the Ministry) would only result in them turning up in his office and that would mean a face to face conversation.</p><p>At least the Dictaquill meant he could continue working on work and rattle off a response to the angrily fluttering bit of parchment.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><div class="post-section">
  <p>"Right, so <a href="https://absintheabsence.tumblr.com/post/153918229996">I’ve probably simplified that guess</a> a bit.</p>
  <p>The two bits of magic that did the damage, based on witness accounts and the aftermath, I’m pretty certain were <a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/nihilus"><em>Nihilus</em></a> first and <em>Fiendfyre</em> second.</p>
  <p><em>However,</em> since it was used multiple times to varying degrees in terms of the spread and whether or not it went out from a central point around the caster or a fan in front of the caster, there were likely a couple other modifier charms tacked on.</p>
  <p><em>Fiendfyre</em> will go off on its own if not controlled but that’s dangerous and not all that useful if you’re aiming for widespread but still targeted destruction. <em>Fiendfyre</em> doesn’t require any modification with other charms to spread out; it’ll spread how and where the caster <em>wants</em> it to spread, assuming they have enough control to direct it.</p>
  <p>It doesn’t require any modification to do that, it only requires direction from the caster. It’d be easiest to set it to trace the path left by<em> Nihilus </em>and given that the destruction paths lined up between the ‘wave’ and the fire that followed, it’s likely that’s what was done.</p>
  <p><em>Fiendfyre</em> can be chained to other spells or set on a timer, which is likely what was done in that case.</p>
  <p><em>Nihilus</em>, when used like that, is typically a single target, thin, wispy thing that looks black with a bit of a violet halo. Fan it out and it becomes almost invisible, only producing a ripple or wave effect. <em>Nihilus</em> would require an <a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/expandi%20manus"><em>Expandi Manus</em></a> to fan it out in front of the caster up to a roughly 180 degree angle–so a straight line in either direction; it’s not capable of surrounding a caster or moving on a vertical axis, though that wouldn’t be strictly necessary with <em>Nihilus.</em></p>
  <p>That is, of course, assuming the caster <em>stood still</em>; <em>Expandi Manus</em> is capable of fanning itself out in a radius if the caster simply drags it around a full 360 degrees before snapping it loose and letting it go.</p>
  <p><em>Expandi Manus</em> will only spread as far as the caster’s intent and the caster needs to have a pretty specific, clear distance in mind for it to be accurate.</p>
  <p>Now, if you wanted <em>Nihilus</em> to hit a vertical axis as well; that’s a funny one, because the easiest way to do that and to keep it spreading out at the same time would be to strip a <em>Perimo</em> down to its main directional structure, grab the bit that controls the vertical axis, wind that into the <em>Expandi Manus</em> use that instead.</p>
  <p>And no, <a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/perimo"><em>Perimo</em></a> wouldn’t have been the initial cast, despite it having a similar visual ‘wave’ effect; <em>Perimo</em> is, more or less, an automated killing curse and has a range of two to three metres. It’s not possible to modify it to expand beyond that.</p>
  <p>Anyway, a vertical axis wouldn’t be <em>strictly</em> necessary unless you were also aiming to annihilate anything in the sky as well; whatever <em>Nihilus</em> touches it reduces to nothing, even if it barely brushes against something.</p>
  <p>So, based on <b><em>European Magical History, Volume IV</em></b>, there were <em>four</em> different methods used:</p>
  <p><b>Standard frontal attack:</b> <em>Expandi Manus</em> &gt; <em>Nihilus</em> &gt; Trigger for the <em>Fiendfyre</em> when <em>Nihilus</em> ends &gt; <em>Fiendfyre </em>on the same path.</p>
  <p><b>Radial attack:</b> <em>Expandi Manus</em> with a bit of a flourish that was possibly more dramatic than it needed to be &gt; <em>Nihilus</em> &gt; Trigger for the<em> Fiendfyre</em> when <em>Nihilus</em> ends  &gt; <em>Fiendfyre</em> on the same path.</p>
  <p><b>Frontal attack on an XY axis:</b> Stripped <em>Perimo</em> &gt; <em>Expandi Manus</em> &gt; <em>Nihilus</em> &gt; Trigger for the <em>Fiendfyre</em> when <em>Nihilus</em> ends &gt; <em>Fiendfyre</em>.</p>
  <p><b>Radial attack on an XY axis:</b> Stripped <em>Perimo</em> &gt; <em>Expandi Manus</em> with a bit of a flourish that was possibly more dramatic than it needed to be &gt; <em>Nihilus</em> &gt; Trigger for the <em>Fiendfyre</em> when <em>Nihilus</em> ends &gt; <em>Fiendfyre.</em></p>
  <p>So, depending on which instance you’re looking at, it was anywhere from 4-5 chained spells per use. The largest one, by witness accounts, was likely the fourth option.</p>
  <p>There are a few other options for making the two spells move in the direction(s) desired, but the list above is, by far, the simplest combination that would take the least amount of effort to execute.</p>
  <p>That’s not to say it’d be <em>easy</em> as both <em>Fiendfyre</em> and <em>Nihilus </em>are <em>notoriously </em>difficult to control with any great degree of precision; anyone trying to replicate it would likely have the <em>Nihilus</em> loop back on them and end up erased from existence.</p>
  <p> </p>
</div><div class="post-section">
  <p><b>Just to add, since I’m a bit more awake now–and it only took until early evening for that to happen:</b> You study obscure magic and a lot of, “We don’t know how This Thing happened,” turns into a very clear, “Oh, so <em>THAT’S</em> what happened. Neat.”</p>
  <p>Figuring out how a terrifying unknown was done strips away the “terrifying unknown” aspect; when you know what something is, how it works, or how it was done, it takes away that shroud of mystery which is what made it terrifying in the first place.</p>
  <p>Trouble is, most people can’t drum up the interest to study obscure things (the fact that most obscure things are obscure either because they’re <em>incredibly</em> dull or completely off the wall mental levels of horrible doesn’t help) so a lot of it turns into almost a sarcastic Muggle answer of, “magic” when the question is, “how did they do it?”</p>
  <p>In this case, I’ve got to be honest, the <em>Fiendfyre</em> aspect should have been obvious to anyone who has ever seen a <em>Fiendfyre</em> before.<br/>It looks <em>very different </em>from standard magical fire; it’s brighter, it burns hotter, and it feels malevolent. You don’t even have to be close to its path to see it and feel what it does to the air; it’s a curse, curses make the air feel a certain way.</p>
  <p>It’ll do that even if you’re using it for pretty benign display purposes, which a lot of people do as you can shape it into figures, animals, anything, really.</p>
  <p>Most people forget that it’s a curse as it’s so often used in brilliant, flashy displays  like that so they brush off that feeling as just being awed by the sheer force of it.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p><em>Nihilus</em>, however, is pretty buried and only mentioned in a few old, difficult to find texts and in many of them it isn’t even detailed so much as it is only mentioned by name with a very brief description of what it’s capable of doing.</p>
  <p>If you haven’t specifically studied it, you’re probably<em> not </em>going to recognise it either by text description or by being near it when it’s cast as a curse.</p>
  <p>I’ve specifically studied it; did so for a few years, and am capable of casting it both at a single target (and not at anything living, just so we’re clear, apart from one rat one time and I still feel kind of awful about that) and as a small area effect.</p>
  <p>Where a <em>Nihilus</em> scrapes itself over the ground, nothing will grow back. You could still build on it and live there, but it’ll always feel <em>strange</em> in a way that’s difficult to describe. Muggles usually interpret it as being a “haunted area”.</p>
  <p>It’s also sort of like <em>Excidium</em> in the fact that you can’t just patch it over with other magic; it won’t stick, it’ll hover above and around the affected areas, but it won’t connect to them.</p>
  <p>And you can’t wait oblivion out. The scar it leaves is permanent.</p>
  <p><em>Anyway</em>, if you’ve never seen that massive 73 mile radius blast area, you <em>should</em>; it’s perfectly safe even if it does sort of make you want to not get anywhere near even its perimeter.</p>
  <p>It’s <em>horrifically</em> amazing.</p>
  <p>I may have also checked out a few of those areas to see if they seemed the same as the tiny mark on the ground I’d left by accidental chance during a duel with <a>@braxfordthebeater</a> which did add to the, “Pretty sure this is what it was,” thing.</p>
  <p>As for me personally, not only is it my <em>job</em> to figure out unknowns with little to nothing solid to go off of, I also just like to know things, especially things that are categorised as “unknown”; unknown means nobody bothered to take a close look at it in most cases.</p>
  <p>
    <em>Knowing things is not implicit or explicit approval of what they are.</em>
  </p>
  <p>Knowledge in and of itself, much like magic, is a neutral thing.</p>
  <p>It’s what you choose to <em>do</em> with it that matters."</p>
  <p>The ragged black quill ceased movement and gently laid itself down on the small table in front of Calleo, waiting for the next thing available to write.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>“She had a scar something close to yours.”</p>
  <p><br/>“The lichtenberg figure?" Calleo glanced up to at least acknowledge he'd heard the quiet statement from Grindelwald. "Suppose if there was a miscast in testing that’d make sense; that one’s got a few–very close to touching but not quite loops in it. When I touched them in one attempt it didn’t circle back at me, thankfully, it just…sort of <em>exploded</em>.”</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>“Some spells are friendlier that way." There had been a shift in Grindelwald's tone, something subtle and easily missed. "To the <em>caster</em>, that is. “It was the only mark on her when we met. I asked her its source, and she said ‘foolishness’. I could have pressed her, naturally, but the way she raised her chin in that moment…” he trailed off, lost in thought again. Calleo should have known better than to interrupt that, especially coupled with the change in the room's atmosphere but, of course, he missed both mild warnings entirely.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>“That’s a pretty fair response; I often default to ‘clumsiness’ if it was a miscast like that. It is a ridiculous <em>point</em> of pride to have one of those two curses backfire and not erase your existence though. My reaction, after the realisation of what had almost happened hit me, was just to–kind of laugh. Not much is going to rattle you after staring oblivion in the face and getting away with only being slapped--more or less.”</p>
  <p><br/>“<em>You were both only children.</em>” His voice is soft, very soft. Another subtle warning missed.</p>
  <p>“I mean, I was in my mid-<em>twenties</em> when I started looking into those two spells; hardly a <em>child!</em>" Calleo laughed and shook his head, "Doubt I could ever use any of those combinations to any sort of scale anyway.”</p>
  <p><br/>“Calleo.” Grindelwald always says his name like that, as though it’s a complete sentence in and of itself. It often is. Here, it sounds like a stone dropped into a deep well. “Swear to me you will never breathe another word of what you’ve found to another living soul.”</p>
  <p>“Braxford already knows." The shrug made itself more evident in Calleo's voice than it did through physical movement, "he’s the one I was dueling with when I did it–backwards. I suppose it doesn’t have to be published anywhere but, it should at least be filed because, the thing is, if you know what it is you know that without that modifier at the start it’ll fail, and you can kill the modifier with a Finite.”</p>
  <p>He should have taken no response as yet another warning. Anyone <em>else</em> would have had the good sense to take it as one.</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. There had been six flower beds and four trees.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Director Yandle &amp; his inability to leave well enough alone. </p><p>Really,  it's just a continuation of what was a very, very long set of interactions.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Director Yandle is an OC played by a friend of mine; he is the director of a small archive department in the Research Wing of the Department of Mysteries.</p><p>This was written on Discord between the two of us, and cleaned up later.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>"Before you document anything, please do keep in mind that it will need to be replicated exactly. Not in terms of scale, of course."</em>
</p><p> </p><p>On some level, it never failed to irritate Calleo that the Director would send a memo one door over when he could have just as easily taken the ten steps to pop into the room and say what he wanted to say. Of course, Calleo could have also taken those same ten steps to enter Director Yandle's office and respond in person. Memos held too much entertainment in how passive-aggressive they tended to come off. What better way to indicate, "You're not worth the ten steps and energy using my voice would take." than a memo?</p><p>Memos came with the additional bonus of being able to have a written record of what was said, should anything go off the rails.</p><p> </p><p>Calleo, being Calleo, started the Dictaquill, speaking loudly enough that the Director could easily hear him through the thin wall that separated his office from his subordinate's.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="post-section">
  <p>"You know, I’d thought about saying no.</p>
  <p>I very nearly <em>did</em>.</p>
  <p>Then, I remembered that you are, now and again, one of the few people with the authority <em>to</em> order me to do things.</p>
  <p>In this particular instance, Director, I have to admit that it was extremely tempting to tell you to test it yourself; after all, I <em>did</em> pretty much lay the steps out in ordered detail.</p>
  <p><em>However</em>, I do enjoy working with you and would at least mildly miss you if you ended up going on off into oblivion; I’d guess your family and friends might as well.</p>
  <p>So, all right, I’ll do it. <em>All four versions.</em></p>
  <p>In <em>your</em> front garden.</p>
  <p>Four of the beds are in a convenient arrangement to step from one to the other and get this over with within about five minutes.</p>
  <p>Don’t worry, I’ll clear the wildlife out first but, if you want some tangible proof that something living had been in the area, you’ll have to leave the flowers and that one massive tree that overhangs one of the beds.</p>
  <p>I'd also like to be on the record as saying this is a terrible idea, it is wholly unnecessary, and <em>you're going to regret it</em>."</p>
</div><p> </p><p> </p><p>Director Yandle had noticed, when he stopped into Calleo’s office to tell him they were going to go and prove what he’d detailed, that Calleo didn’t seem the <em>slightest</em> bit excited to do so.</p><p>In fact, up until the Director had all but <em>ordered</em> him to stop stalling and get on with it, Calleo had protested in great detail as to why it wasn’t necessary, why it shouldn’t be done, why the Director would regret every part of this afternoon. That last one was new; he couldn’t recall Calleo <em>ever </em>telling him that <em>he’d</em> regret something.</p><p>He had assumed his Senior Archivist was, as he often was, being a touch over dramatic about it or was, in fact, stalling to try and cover the fact that he wouldn’t be able to replicate what he had previously stated he could “easily replicate”.</p><p> </p><p>Calleo had somehow, <em>somehow</em>, in a way the Director couldn’t wrap his head around after it was done, gone through all four described methods while detailing in the most alarmingly detached way what he was casting while he was casting it.</p><p>Three on the ground, one directly in front of him, the other two he moved to step between them; one in front, one behind.</p><p>The other three also on the ground, gone in the same pattern, and including the overhanging trees to demonstrate the upward movement that was possible.</p><p><em>Those</em> were the most terrifying to witness; the <em>Fiendfyre</em> was, in every instance, functionally useless.<em> It had nothing to burn.</em> Anything it might have burned was already gone by the time the fire swept the area. Something about seeing the flaming shapes of what had <em>been</em> present–that was what took an otherwise already horrifying scene and made it deeply scarring.</p><p>Nothing is difficult to visualise. Fire is not.</p><p>This combination of magic had been purposely designed to make sure <em>anyone</em> surviving it wouldn’t be able to blot it out from memory.</p><p> </p><p>A <em>Fiendfyre</em> is loud in a staggering way, more so than an ordinary fire, even when used over small areas. It’s a type of fire that less announces its destruction so much as it screams it.</p><p>But it was the silence that rang loudest of all. <em>Nihilius</em> left a seething, cold, silence where it touched that not even a <em>Fiendfyre</em> could mask or wipe away. The Director had, of course, read about it in numerous texts but had never witnessed it and had never been present when <em>Nihilus’</em> presence was still fresh.</p><p>And <em>this?</em></p><p>This…<em>this was insignificant.</em> A few dozen plants gone, nothing that should have caused <em>any</em> sort of impact at all, their–<em>not death</em>, something much worse, much more permanent–it had been quick, nearly instant. If they could feel at all they wouldn’t have known. <em>They couldn’t have.</em></p><p>That was, at least, what the Director kept mentally repeating to himself as he slowly stood, looking between the area that had, seconds before, held six vibrant flower beds, up to where the trees–they weren’t there<em> now</em>, nothing was, save for a pile of what looked like silvery, shimmering ash on the ground that could be touched but not touched at the same time–had been, and <em>finally</em>, almost reluctantly back to Calleo.</p><p>Despite the creeping, awful terror that more loudly countered that <em>they had known</em>, if only for an instant, he could only <em>try</em> to drown it out. It didn’t matter now, of course, <em>they were gone.</em> Not dead, gone, completely erased from all existence, past, present, and future.</p><p>And this instance had only happened to <em>plants.</em> </p><p>The Director had found it silly, almost to a childish degree, that Calleo had so meticulously gone over the area, ensuring that any wildlife present had been relocated to another area of the garden. By the time the first bed had gone, he <em>fully</em> understood why. He had also come to the stark realisation as to why it could never have been possible to stop it the way it was used as a weapon; speed and reaction time were simply not relevant. It was stunning in the <em>worst</em> possible way and he had, after the first flower bed was consumed, wanted to tell his subordinate that that was <em>enough, the point was proven</em> yet–he hadn’t. Seeing it at all had been enough to freeze him completely.</p><p> </p><p>And he was just standing there, looking almost <em>bored!</em> </p><p>“<em>You have no idea</em>,” the Director began and stopped to more fully compose himself. Fear often came across as anger and, despite his best efforts, the Director could not erase either, “how grateful I will <em>always</em> be that you are as young as you are and how <em>completely and utterly terrifying</em> it is that you hold <em>any</em> level of sway over what’s left of <em>those people</em>.”</p><p>In truth, the Director wasn’t certain <em>what</em> kind of response he’d expected out of Calleo. He couldn’t have even explained why he said what he did considering he’d been the one that required proof in the first place; what had just happened, in this instance, wasn’t illegal or even <em>questionably</em> legal, and that may have been the only reason Calleo had agreed to do it in the first place.</p><p>
  <em>Seeing it so <b>effortlessly</b> done, though…</em>
</p><p>
  
</p><p>Whatever it was that the Director might have expected, it was not the mingled expression of confusion and disbelief (brief as it was).</p><p>Even <em>less</em> expected was the fact that Calleo either didn’t or couldn’t hide it in his voice; the impact of the words alone being enough to cause the Director to step back as though he’d been physically hit.</p><p>
  <em>“You really think so <b>little</b> of me?”</em>
</p><p>Calleo hadn’t given him a chance to respond before moving on to a short, “See you at work,” followed by disapparating; it was just as well, as the Director wasn’t at all certain how he’d have answered that question anyway.</p><p>The silence might have been preferable.</p><p>There had been six flower beds and four trees.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Silence</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Who better to reverse what can be reversed than the one who greenlit the weapon in the first place?</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"You don’t have to talk if you’d rather not but I would at least ask you to listen." Calleo paused and, receiving no reaction from Grindelwald, continued under the assumption that the other man could hear him just fine and was choosing not to respond (and for good reason). "We <em>are</em>, after all, both upset at the same things–more or less. Myself, first and foremost because, <em>regardless</em> of the reasoning, it was still <em>my</em> doing."</p><p>"Work is work," that often used phrase more sighed than spoken, "but, I also know what the Director's requirements were are always arbitrary; he took my documented work on <em>Nihilus</em> as a curse years ago <em>without</em> question <em>or</em> proof required beyond what I’d written and I was certain he’d take it again after speaking with him outside of owls. He may have had more of a personal interest in it in <em>this</em> combination but that doesn’t really matter either."</p><p>Any levity typically present had, for the moment, disappeared entirely from Calleo. There were some forms of magic that, even under <em>normal</em> circumstances, he wouldn't have been terribly pleased to have to use. This combination happened to be one of them; it was a concrete confirmation that, where the Zauberreich had deployed die Zerstörung, everything in its path--plants, animals, people--had not merely been killed, they'd been erased from existence entirely. There was no "moving on", no afterlife reunions with loved ones, they were simply gone.</p><p>When Grindelwald still gave no response beyond a few subtle movements or changes in breathing, Calleo continued. "Up until the point he told me to stop stalling or he’d do it <em>himself</em>, it had been almost a solid two <em>hours</em> of me trying to talk him out of it, to just do what he’d done with all of the previous papers on <em>Nihilus.  </em>He would have. Done it himself, I mean. Or, rather, he’d have <em>tried</em> to do it himself and it would have coiled back on him. I knew I could do it, whether I wanted to or not, and I think he knew I <em>wouldn’t</em> call his bluff if it was a bluff. I don’t necessarily want to think about what might have happened if it hadn’t been a bluff–but it’s still my fault." Nothing in his words hinted at making excuses so much as it was all a stark indictment of himself, with no attempts to justify, only to explain the events that led to him doing exactly what Grindelwald had asked him not to do only one day previous.</p><p>"He told me that I had no idea how completely and utterly terrifying it is that I hold any kind of sway over <em>“those people” </em>once it was over. The only thing I could think to ask was if he really thought so little of me. Not five minutes <em>previous</em> he’d been chiding me for being “childish” when I spent time meticulously and carefully moving all of the wildlife out of the area and putting up barriers so it couldn’t even accidentally enter while–anyway–" Calleo trailed off and sank down into one of the chairs in the cell.</p><p> </p><p>"I’m not–whatever it <em>whispers</em> from the back of my mind, and it <em>always</em> does that, fairly intensely for a couple of weeks before it starts to fade–I’m not what it tells me I am. I’m not a monster, regardless of how persistent it is in telling me otherwise. But, I always wonder how long I can keep arguing with it before I won’t have enough evidence to the contrary to <em>deny</em> it. He forced my hand in a way he <em>knew</em> I wouldn’t be able to escape and, in doing that, he caused both of us to hurt <em>you</em>. Of all the pieces of the situation that I still have the ability to affect, that one is the worst."</p><p>"And you? You’ve been put through so much and all this did was needlessly make you relive parts of it. It isn’t my place to forgive the Director for it, and I won’t ask you to forgive <em>me</em> for it either; it’ll be difficult enough to forgive myself for it. I owe you an apology though. You’d asked me to leave it as it was and I had fully <em>intended</em> to do that; the reasons I wasn’t able to do that aren’t exactly relevant to the fact that my not being able to do that hurt you. You didn’t deserve that, you <em>don’t</em> deserve that. For that I am so inexpressibly sorry."</p><p>"If there’s anything at all that I need to do or that you need me to do to even begin to help you here–"</p><p> </p><p>And Grindelwald still hadn't said a word.</p><p>Maybe he <em>couldn’t</em> in the moment, it wouldn't be nearly the first time he'd been unable to speak, but that sort of silence is just as deafening as shouting.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="post-section">
  <p class="question">Later on in the--whatever time of day it was, whatever <em>day</em> it was in general, figuring that out was often difficult due to the constant state of the storms--another section of the tower's wall was down. The craggy ground at the foot of the tower now covered in a fine dust (that, on closer inspection, hisses faintly).</p>
  <p class="question"><strong>A note on the desk:</strong> “Spread this on the ground with iron filings where the curse struck. It may take some years, but it should sap the magic from the earth.”</p>
</div><div class="post-section">
  <p>Calleo had replied to the other owl and had stopped by after work with a good amount of the ‘dust’ that was at the tower base. It was also strangely <em>not</em> difficult to find iron filings somehow; he discovered quickly enough that Muggles sell that sort of thing by the literal tonne, with no questions asked.</p>
  <p>When he returned in the evening (after a greeting, of course) Calleo remarked at how impressive it was to collapse an entire wall and get the security wards back in place to fill in as they had with the rest of the tower and to manage to do it silently.</p>
  <p>It <em>was</em> impressive, no matter how you looked at it, to be able to take down an entire wall and have the other person in the room not notice.</p>
  <p>“I’m sure you’ve had the same thought: This is a massive building and all of the stone still has its ability to absorb magical energy. This is really the only area of the building that’s in use; some of the rest might need to be cleared out or shuffled around a bit, but it’s largely empty. The alarms don’t seem to care if there’s much for structure collapse.”</p>
  <p>“Might not be able to bring down the <em>largest</em> sections all at once but it could the smaller ones without having to take the whole building down.”</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>“When it’s finished.” It’s the first time he’d spoken in days; the hoarse rasp of his voice recalls their first meeting. “I want you to take it all down. As much as you can.” </p>
  <p><br/>“That should be easy enough." Calleo knew the implication of the first thing Grindelwald had said. "Whether you believe it or not, it’s good to hear your voice again.” </p>
  <p><br/>“As ever. You are <em>much</em> too kind.” </p>
  <p><br/>“Kindness and the truth often intersect. I worry about you when you’re quiet for long periods of time.” Despite the fact that Grindelwald had found his voice again, he didn't appear to be much in the mood to continue chatting. "I should get to work on that then."</p>
</div>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Northwest Wing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I was thinking that the Northwest wing would be the <em>easiest</em> one to bring down first." Several days had elapsed, and Calleo was, once again, able to read the room fairly well.</p><p>He thought it best to begin as though he were making a proposal at the Ministry, as it wouldn't do to come off as enjoying the whole situation (despite the fact that, for all of its awfulness, the magic involved was <em>incredibly</em> interesting and engaging) so he was careful to remain as detached and academic sounding as he could manage. "I know that one is empty and it’s the one I’d shut down and rebuilt the warding on a few months back so I know the wards in, on, and around it aren’t going to react <em>unpredictably</em> to the whole thing falling in on itself."</p><p>"Trouble is, the way the alarm system on the whole place is, <em>they’re going to all go off</em>. Briefly, before the security re-knits itself the way it did on the tower but, if anyone is still paying any attention to the alarms at all they’re probably going to notice a brief indicator of a catastrophic structural failure. Rough estimate," Calleo paused to run the numbers through his head, "if a thick enough layer is used so it might be effective to a noticeable degree, it could cover three or four of the smaller areas where die Zerstörung was used."</p><p> </p><p><em>Technically</em>, parts of the highest tower had been taken down a–lot earlier but that wasn’t for any specific purpose and all but the most recent wall removal had been the result of duels so this still counted as the ‘first’ section to be <em>demolished</em>.</p><p>Calleo had gone through the inside of the wing, placing markers around boundaries and cordoning off areas that shared a wall or were part of the lode bearing structure of the surrounding building.<br/>The wards let him pass; they always did, that tends to happen when one has a set of keys.</p><p>The <em>alarms</em>, however…</p><p><em>There was no way of getting around the alarms.</em> If there <em>had</em> been, it wouldn’t have been much of a prison.</p><p>All of the alarms that were still functioning (more or less) could not exactly be deactivated or paused without going off.</p><p>Yeah, sure the entire wing’s alarms would go off when that part of the building fell but only for a second before they’d die out, having been tied to the stone itself, then re-knit when the rest of the outer security did.</p><p>The former would likely cause less alarm than the latter to anyone listening as the latter would be more likely to indicate catastrophic structural failure as opposed to, “<em>There is a person shutting the security down</em>.”</p><p>If anyone <em>was</em> paying attention, however, they were about to possibly jump out of their skin (and hopefully <em>not</em> care enough to come out and see what all the commotion was).</p><p>Doubtful anyone paid attention to them anymore and the alarms were going to go off regardless of whether they were carefully deactivated or suddenly silenced.</p><p>Calleo had gone over the building’s schematics more than once and did so for this wing again; shame to see it go, it was the one he’d stripped down and rebuilt the security on because it was the only one that had had dead alarms to start with. It had been back in its original state, complete with original and re-armed alarms and every last bit of it functioned as designed. Arguably, the Northwest wing of Nurmengard was the <em>only</em> wing still functioning the way it had been designed to function.</p><p>It was also, unfortunately, the only completely <em>empty</em> wing.</p><p>Considering <em>why</em> Calleo was down there to knock it down, then into smaller pieces, and finally to dust it seemed somehow fitting that the first one he did was the one he’d repaired.</p><p> </p><p>The wards on the outside walls and roof would, of course, re-form themselves creating functional (albeit only magical) walls and a roof with, ironically enough, the security and alarms back in place. That process had been fast enough on the tower that, if anyone had noticed, they <em>hadn’t</em> done anything about it and may have written it off as nothing considering how erratic the magic everywhere <em>else</em> in the building was.</p><p>One wall he could have taken from intact stone to dust, much like Grindelwald had done with one of the remaining tower walls.</p><p>An <em>entire wing</em> was a different matter. Certain areas where the wing connected to the main building couldn’t be taken just yet; doing so would potentially knock down other walls.</p><p>One incorrect thing turned to rubble instead of only having the stone around it crumble away could, potentially, take down a <em>lot</em> more than just one wing.</p><p>Grindelwald could have taken the whole thing down in a matter of seconds but, then, he’d also <em>built</em> the place and knew its structure better than anyone. There was also the problem of him refusing to leave the cell. Maybe not <em>problem</em>, he was <em>supposed</em> to stay there; that was, after all, <em>the entire point of a prison cell.</em></p><p>
  
</p><p>So Calleo spent an excessive amount of time combing over the Northwest wing, floor to ceiling, inside and out, figuring exactly where the magic that would turn it into a large pile of rubble that could then be reduced to the dust that was necessary.</p><p>He’d also taken a good amount of time on the roof, making sure to shoo away anything living in alcoves, coverings, or any other hidden area. Anything up there could fly, of course, but it seemed safer to scatter them <em>before</em> the building started to collapse.</p><p>Then, there came the issue of wedging the detonation spells in between the tightly woven security that really was having <em>none</em> of this nonsense. On the one hand, that meant Calleo had done a pretty spot on job of reconstructing it from the ground up and, on the other, it also made it necessary for him to use a few keys to manually–and <em>briefly</em>–shut them down, make the changes he needed to make, and fire them back up again; that alarm sequence, at least, would have been brief enough to likely be written off as the frequent <em>false</em> alarms that had been going off at random intervals for decades.</p><p>Even if it did cause <em>actual</em> alarm–and he still wasn’t convinced anyone paid attention to those alarms anymore anyway–the demolition’s main event would be done before anyone showed up. Wouldn’t exactly be the <em>easiest</em> thing to explain but, as long as the prisoner was still safely locked in his cell, it couldn’t <em>possibly</em> cause that much of an issue. </p><p> </p><p>He hadn’t know how long he’d be down there setting things up before tearing it all down. Despite knowing full well that Grindelwald would have been expecting a lot of noise and very likely the tower shaking at its foundations, it still seemed a bit rude to not give him a heads up when everything was set either so it wouldn’t be a complete and loud surprise or so he could watch–the tower, by this point, might as well have been an almost panoramic window anyway.</p><p>Not much needed to be said, just, <em>“In three…”</em></p><p>In reality, it was closer to <em>four</em> due to the fact that, at the last second, it somehow dawned on Calleo that he was still standing inside the wing he was about to implode. Not strictly a problem, it would have been easy to shield himself but, also, not strictly the best idea either. The extra second it took him to apparate outside–and, of course, briefly setting off one of the wing’s alarms in the process–wouldn’t have mattered.</p><p>As quickly as the stone fell, the security system that had been ripped apart as it did, immediately re-knit itself and sprung back to life creating a solid, invisible wall in the exact shape of the Northwest wing that had stood seconds before.</p><p>Just as an odd precaution, Calleo lit them so they were visible as well; if anyone <em>did</em> come poking around to check out a catastrophic structural failure alarm they’d hopefully relax a <em>little</em> if they could see that the security was still present even if that part of the building looked more like a quarry now. <br/>The tower often looked that way anyway; lit up over the areas where the stone had been…removed…for one reason or another.</p><p> </p><p>And, of course, walls aren’t exactly keen on letting someone just pass through them (even with keys). He <em>COULD</em> but it’d set off another set of alarms again and that really was a thing he tried to keep to a minimum just in general.</p><p>Back to the front, through the door, and a not-so-quick-simply-due-to-the-size-of-the-place walk to the ruined wing later and–Calleo probably should have got right to work breaking the stone down to dust. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to or didn’t intend to, it was more that the way everything had fallen it stayed neatly inside the wards that went back up as quickly as they’d gone down and it was in <em>a very…climbable pile.</em></p><p>He justified climbing around for fun as, “It’ll be easier to take it to dust from the top down” but, really, he could have just shifted and flown to the top of the pile, which was an option he definitely chose to ignore. It had been a long week and Calleo intended full well to take whatever fun he could get, even if it was <em>technically </em>work.</p><p>Not just work, <em>unpaid</em> work and manual labor–<em>sort of</em>–at that! </p><p>Unpaid manual labor that came with a creepy statement about being someone <em>else’s</em> arm. That sort of odd talk Calleo wasn’t sure he’d ever get <em>fully</em> used to but, he was used to it enough that it didn’t bother him; <em>Seers are weird anyway.</em></p><p>There was an odd amount of fun in blasting the stone he was standing on into smaller pieces and having to jump away to a more stable, larger piece, only to repeat the process; almost enough to make him forget that the stone itself absorbed magic, whether that magic was hitting it or contained within the person touching it.</p><p>He probably should have worn better shoes.</p><p>If one has to do unpaid work, one may as well enjoy it, and if the unpaid work is going to try its damnedest to wear him out in the process, it’d have to do what anything else that tried to sap Calleo: Work for every last bit of it and likely still <em>fail</em>.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. The Final Report: Neutralising die Zerstörung.</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p></p><div class="post-section">
  <p> </p>
  <p></p>
  <blockquote>
    <p>
      <em>“Over the course of the Eastern European Wizarding War, millions fell in the path of what has been described by its few living witnesses as a sickly silence sweeping over entire valleys- something like a rainstorm, something like a wind, and something, indeed, like an Avada Kedavra on a massive scale. After the light faded, total conflagration inevitably followed.”</em>
    </p>
    <p>
      <em>  - “European Magical History, Volume IV”, Bathilda Bagshot</em>
    </p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Anyone who has taken at least one or two courses in European Magical History is already likely familiar with this particular topic, and any further explanation I have will revolve solely around breaking down the weapon as it was designed into its various parts.</p>
  <p>There are two primary spells that did the damage, based on witness accounts and the aftermath effect. <em>Nihilus</em> followed by a <em>Fiendfyre</em>.</p>
  <p>However, since it was used multiple times to varying degrees in terms of the spread and whether or not it went out from a central point around the caster or a fan in front of the caster, there were likely a couple other modifier charms tacked on.</p>
  <p><em>Fiendfyre</em> will go off on its own if not controlled but that’s dangerous and not all that useful if you’re aiming for widespread but still targeted destruction. <em>Fiendfyre </em>doesn’t require any modification with other charms to spread out; it’ll spread how and where the caster wants it to spread, assuming they have enough control to direct it.</p>
  <p>It doesn’t require any modification to do that, it only requires direction from the caster. It’d be easiest to set it to trace the path left by <em>Nihilus </em>and given that the destruction paths lined up between the ‘wave’ and the fire that followed, it’s likely that’s what was done.</p>
  <p><em>Fiendfyre</em> can be chained to other spells or set on a timer, which is likely what was done in that case.</p>
  <p><em>Nihilus</em>, when used like that, is typically a single target, thin, wispy thing that looks black with a bit of a violet halo. Fan it out and it becomes almost invisible, only producing a ripple or wave effect. <em>Nihilus </em>would require an <em>Expandi Manus</em> to fan it out in front of the caster up to a roughly 180 degree angle–so a straight line in either direction; it’s not capable of surrounding a caster or moving on a vertical axis, though that wouldn’t be strictly necessary with <em>Nihilus.</em></p>
  <p>That is, of course, assuming the caster stood still; <em>Expandi Manus </em>is capable of fanning itself out in a radius if the caster simply drags it around a full 360 degrees before snapping it loose and letting it go.</p>
  <p><em>Expandi Manus</em> will only spread as far as the caster’s intent and the caster needs to have a pretty specific, clear distance in mind for it to be accurate.</p>
  <p>Now, if you wanted <em>Nihilus </em>to hit a vertical axis as well; that’s a funny one, because the easiest way to do that and to keep it spreading out at the same time would be to strip a <em>Perimo</em> down to its main directional structure, grab the bit that controls the vertical axis, wind that into the<em> Expandi Manus </em>use that instead.</p>
  <p><em>Perimo</em> wouldn’t have been the initial cast, despite it having a similar visual ‘wave’ effect; <em>Perimo</em> is, more or less, an automated killing curse and has a range of two to three metres. It’s not possible to modify it to expand beyond that.</p>
  <p>A vertical axis wouldn’t be strictly necessary unless you were also aiming to annihilate anything in the sky as well; whatever <em>Nihilus</em> touches it reduces to nothing, even if it barely brushes against something.</p>
  <h2>
    <b>Based on <em>European Magical History, Volume IV</em>, there were four different methods used:</b>
  </h2>
  <p><b>Standard frontal attack:</b> <em>Expandi Manus &gt; Nihilus &gt; Trigger for the Fiendfyre when Nihilus ends &gt; Fiendfyre on the same path.</em></p>
  <p><b>Radial attack:</b> <em> Expandi Manus with a bit of a flourish that was possibly more dramatic than it needed to be &gt; Nihilus &gt; Trigger for the Fiendfyre when Nihilus ends  &gt; Fiendfyre on the same path.</em></p>
  <p><b>Frontal attack on an XY axis:</b> <em>Stripped Perimo &gt; Expandi Manus &gt; Nihilus &gt; Trigger for the Fiendfyre when Nihilus ends &gt; Fiendfyre.</em></p>
  <p><b>Radial attack on an XY axis:</b> <em>Stripped Perimo &gt; Expandi Manus with a bit of a flourish that was possibly more dramatic than it needed to be &gt; Nihilus &gt; Trigger for the Fiendfyre when Nihilus ends &gt; Fiendfyre.</em></p>
  <p>Depending on which instance you’re looking at, it was anywhere from 4-5 chained spells per use. The largest one, by witness accounts, was likely the fourth option.</p>
  <p>There are a few other options for making the two spells move in the direction(s) desired, but the list above is, by far, the simplest combination that would take the least amount of effort to execute.</p>
  <p>That’s not to say it’d be easy as both <em>Fiendfyre</em> and <em>Nihilus</em> are notoriously difficult to control with any great degree of precision; anyone trying to replicate it would likely have the <em>Nihilus</em> loop back on them and end up erased from existence.</p>
  <p><b>The above four methods were tested and successful using Director Yandle’s gardens</b>; no sentient or non-sentient beings or beasts were destroyed in the process. Only a few dozen flowers, grass, and a couple of trees at the Director’s private residence.</p>
  <p>
    <em> <b>I would prefer to be on the record as stating that testing of the theory above was not my idea and that I felt it was wholly unnecessary; it was at the Director’s insistence that it be tested before ink was formally put to parchment on the topic.</b> </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em>  </em>
  </p>
  <p>Following the successful testing, an old colleague, Mr. Graves, put forth the idea that, while nothing can restore the life that was extinguished under a <em>Nihilus</em>, the areas that remained dead–as is typical for an area that’s been scraped with <em>Nihilus</em>; as a curse, it lingers and leaves a distinct feeling of something being fundamentally unsettling and wrong. Plant and animal life will not return, and most other creatures will avoid the areas as well–could <em>potentially</em> have some life breathed back into them.</p>
  <p>Considering the gravity of the damage caused, and knowing what caused it, his proposed solution was to take stone or, failing that, variants of magic meant to nullify other magic. The latter option seemed to be less likely to work as it was less that the lingering magic needed nullification so much as it simply needed to be absorbed.</p>
  <p>There are certain types of stone that have this particular property and Mr. Graves has a reasonably well guarded source for it, of which he was kind enough to let me use for testing the theory he’d put forth that spreading the dust of such stone across a damaged area and mixing it with iron filings should, after a period of time, simply absorb the lingering magic left by <em>Nihilus</em> and allow life to return to the damaged area.</p>
  <p>This was first tested on Director Yandle’s gardens; for some weeks it appeared that nothing had changed, and that that particular area of the gardens would remain, in effect, an empty grave as a reminder of what had been done. Following a period of about a month and a half, however, grass could be seen poking up through the dusting of powdered stone and iron filings. They have since attempted planting new things in those ares of the garden and the plants in question seem to have taken root normally.</p>
  <p>They’re a bit smaller than one might expect from what was planted, but they’re still able to survive and grow.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>Following that success, I spoke with a few contacts who live near the areas that <em>die Zerstörung</em> had devastated during the war and currently work is underway to cover as much of the affected areas with the mix of stone dust and iron filings as is possible with the limited amount of stone available.</p>
  <p>Preliminary results are consistent with the smaller scale results seen in the Director’s garden and we are confident that, given enough time, the majority of the affected areas will be fully restored to where they had been prior to having the weapon used over the area.</p>
  <p>The lingering curse which left those areas uninhabitable is reversible. The stone in question is not necessarily the <em>only</em> method; any material that is capable of absorbing large amounts of magic would likely be a suitable substitute should the supply of the original stone run out.</p>
  <p>Iron filings are easily bought in absurdly large quantities–tonnes and tonnes–from Muggle suppliers who do not ask any questions about why; they are commonly used in Muggle scientific applications as well as in certain types of magnetic toys, and are readily available.</p>
  <p>Caution should be taken when spreading the mixture as the stone dust itself will draw magic from the people spreading it and it cannot be spread by magical means as it simply absorbs the magic.  The stone would not have much of an effect on Muggles or Squibs, however, and those two demographics could be hired to do the physical work of spreading the material out; for Muggles, all one would have to say is that it’s a fertiliser meant to restore soil integrity to an area that was damaged either by something along the lines of a “chemical spill” or “during the second world war”.</p>
  <h2>
    <b>Recommendations: </b>
  </h2>
  <p>While normally, I would recommend the addition of new information to the history books that cover this period in time, in this case it is not only unnecessary, it would cause additional and undue distress to those who either survived by escaping its radius or to those who had family or friends destroyed in its wake.</p>
  <p>There is, to my knowledge, no existing person who would be able to wield this combination of magic against other human beings; more likely, they would simply destroy themselves in the attempt.</p>
  <p><em>There is no use for this combination of magic outside of complete and utter destruction</em>; however, having the knowledge of how it was done not being lost to history significantly increases the chances that, should something similar pop up, it might be easily recognisable and not a horrifying unknown threat.</p>
  <p>This document, after being assigned to a spot in the Archives, will be largely unavailable and only made available on a need-to-know basis; that basis will be determined by either the Director or myself.</p>
  <p>To those who would quote from <em>European Magical History</em> and parrot back the line,<em> “To this day, no witch or wizard has been able to replicate the terror wrought by the Zauberreich’s ultimate weapon; they called it die Zerstörung, conceived of and executed by the fallen empire’s most fearsome general, Burgstaller,” </em>that is a dangerous view to take both in my personal and professional opinion.</p>
  <p>Some argue magic such as this should remain a dead and buried unknown; it’s <em>rumoured</em> that not even Grindelwald had any idea exactly what combination of spells had been used to create this weapon.</p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>The trouble with that is that it will <em>always</em> be re-discovered. It may be rediscovered by someone attempting to replicate it as it was, by accident, or by someone who simply does not take “unknown” as a valid answer.</p>
  <p>The unknown is frightening and difficult to defend against.</p>
  <p>The known may well still be frightening but once one knows what it is, proper precautions and defenses can be implemented.</p>
  <p>
    <em>Knowledge, like magic, in and of itself is a neutral thing; it’s what you do with it that determines how it will be remembered.</em>
  </p>
  <p>Nothing can restore what was taken by <em>Nihilus</em>, but it does not and should not remain a hopeless, barren scar; remove the curse, and all curses are removable one way or another, and life returns.</p>
  <p>It only took <em>just</em> over fifty years for this “unknown” to become known again and, looking back, that fear of the unknown, the push to keep it unknown, and the push to discourage anyone from attempting to figure out exactly what it had been kept large areas of land in Europe fully dead and avoided.</p>
  <p>The latter statement has been made evident by Mr. Graves, upon learning exactly which two spells had caused the damage itself, came up with a potential way to reverse and repair what could be reversed and repaired within twenty-four hours.</p>
  <p>
    <em>There is nothing to be feared from knowledge itself.</em>
  </p>
  <p>Should the Ministry not wish to be involved in the clean up efforts, such as they are, there is no need to make a statement; copies of this paper have been sent to Wizarding governments in countries that have areas of land affected by <em>die Zerstörung’s </em>past use.</p>
  <p>Their point of contact will be Felix Metzger.</p>
  <p>Calleo Bricriu<br/>Senior Archivist<br/>Department of Mysteries, Research Wing - Archives</p>
  <p>
    <b>Written Sources Cited:</b>
  </p>
  <p>“<a href="https://absintheabsence.tumblr.com/post/153918229996/to-this-day-no-witch-or-wizard-has-been-able-to"><em>European Magical History, Volume IV</em></a>”, Bathilda Bagshot</p>
  <p>“<a href="https://vogelchen.com/post/181692189633/3-what-was-the-last-book-you-read"><em>Æterna Discruciare</em></a>”, Various Authors</p>
  <p>“<a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/Aeterna%20Nihilum/chrono"><em>Aeterna Nihilum</em></a>”, Unknown</p>
  <p>“<a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/Maledictum%20Coerceri/chrono"><em>Maledictum Coerceri</em></a>”, Various Authors </p>
  <p>“<a href="https://vogelchen.com/post/28056529986/reorganisation"><em>Nihilus - Rev. 1-2</em></a>”, Calleo Bricriu </p>
  <p>“<a href="https://vogelchen.com/post/128034786958/revision-to-nihilus-3108"><em>Nihilus - Rev. 3</em></a>.”, Calleo Bricriu</p>
  <p>“ <a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/expandi%20manus/chrono"><em>Expandi Manus</em></a> “, Calleo Bricriu</p>
  <p>“<em><a href="https://vogelchen.com/tagged/perimo/chrono">Perimo</a>”, </em>Calleo Bricriu</p>
  <p>
    <b>Personal Sources Cited:</b>
  </p>
  <p>Director Yandle , Ministry of Magic, Department of Mysteries, Research Wing - Archives - Department Director.</p>
  <p>Mr. Graves , retired.</p>
  <p>Felix Metzger, German Ministry of Magic, Records Department, Leipzig Office (current). Zauberreich Intelligence (former).</p>
  <p>Tadeusz Zilberman<em> ( <a href="https://tmblr.co/m3rgDcPpiYkr94c_u8BOHiw">@pracownik-ministerstwa</a> )</em> , Ministry of Magic, International Magical Office of Law.</p>
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